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This photo shows a modern horizontal axis wind turbine. A wind turbine is a device that converts energy from wind to electricity. As the wind hits the blades of the wind turbine, it causes them to spin around a central pivot. This rotational energy is converted into electricity using magnets.

The transmission tower shown in this photo uses a steel tube to meet the load requirements needed to support power transmission lines over a distance. This type of transmission tower is not the most common, but it is gaining popularity due to its durability and ease of construction.

You’ve probably seen one of these before. This is the most common structure used to support power transmission lines from one location to another location. This particular structure uses a steel lattice to meet the load requirements needed in this application.

This is the control center of the Fermi 2 Nuclear Power Plant near Monroe, Michigan. The controls extend 360 degrees around the room and are meant to control every aspect of the nuclear operations. The octagon shape shows the fuel within the regulator. When lit it indicates a SCRAM, emergency shutdown of the reactor, is occurring. The analog display at the top shows the temperature of the water, the pressure, the water level, and the output Mega wattage produced from the plant.

The University of Michigan has configured a system to allow those passing by the central campus Diag to use the water from the fire hydrant. They have set up a filter to clean the water from the ground within the pipe of the fire hydrant and attached a drinking fountain and faucet attachment to access the water.

A mobile substation is just that, a substation on wheels. Mobile substations are generally used when a substation has to be shut down for maintenance purposes and the customer load cannot be jumpered to surrounding substations due to capacity limitations. Since maintenance activities can take several days or longer, it is unacceptable to give customers such a long outage. In these cases a mobile substation is driven in and connected to feed these customers while the main substation is being maintained.

As seen here bridges don’t always carry people in cars or trains over obstacles. This is a bridge in Detroit, Michigan at the Ford Motor Company Rouge River Plant. This factory is so large that roads actually pass through the complex requiring utilities, such as steam pipes, to cross the road to access different parts of the plant.

Seen here is a perfect example of a double use structure, a high voltage electricity power transmission line and a cell phone tower. Structures of this nature are good, because they allow engineers to accomplish two tasks with only one structure. This is just one example of how society needs to be more efficient in designing structures of the future.

Seen here is a black and white picture of the B.C Cobb Generating Plant on Muskegon Lake in Muskegon, Michigan. B.C. Cobb is a 320 megawatt facility with a smoke stack over 600 feet tall. Western United States coal is the primary fuel burned at this facility, totaling a consumption of about one million tons of coal per year. The plant can also burn natural gas if it becomes economically viable. Power plants like this one are crucial to keeping the electric power grid energized 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.